Published 4:00 am, Thursday, May 21, 1998

1998-05-21 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- When a Muni bus crumpled the side of Supervisor Gavin Newsom's Jeep Cherokee last Thanksgiving, it set off a chain of events that could revolutionize the way city departments treat ordinary people.

A frustrated Newsom found himself tangled in the Municipal Railway's impenetrable bureaucracy as he tried to report and get recompensed for the accident.

The supervisor had already been on a tear about the need for city departments to treat people like customers, rather than the enemy, so he zeroed in on Muni.

Now, Newsom is calling on Muni to create a customer service division and to name a chief customer service officer to head the unit.

He also suggested that Muni not only deal promptly and courteously with customers but that it go out and solicit comments and suggestions, and then show people it is acting on them.

Newsom made the recommendations this week in a report that looked at the practices of seven other big-city transit agencies. Newsom and his staff conducted the five-month study with the aid of Curtis Below, an intern in his office who is working on a master's degree in public policy at the University of California at Berkeley.

"Muni's entire system of conducting passenger relations is broken. It needs a wholesale reinvention," Newsom said yesterday.

Muni Director Emilio Cruz said he agreed with a lot in Newsom's report. "We don't disagree with the concept or a lot of the details. We should try to improve all forms of service to the public," said Cruz, who is reorganizing much of Muni's management structure.

Months ago, Newsom requested each city department to file a report on what it's doing to improve customer service. Most didn't respond the first time, so he repeated his request a few months later. To his chagrin, many said their plan consisted of continuing to do what they're doing.

But this week, he got some action. As soon as Newsom issued his Muni report, the Department of Parking and Traffic's new head, Stuart Sunshine, called the supervisor and said he would propose that his agency adopt many of the recommendations Newsom made for Muni.

"We want to increase the civility between the department and the public," said Sunshine, whose department generally encounters people only at moments of great stress, like when cars are towed or ticketed.

Among other San Francisco city departments, Public Works Director Mark Primeau has already made customer service a mantra for his staff, he said. He has gone so far as to bring in a concierge from Nordstrom's to lecture managers on the need to treat people like kings.

People with a complaint about service, drivers or accidents involving Muni vehicles are now routed to the passenger service unit or the transit information center. Muni gets about 1,000 complaints a month.

Muni already plans to expand the units' hours of operation, so they will be open on weekends, earlier in the morning and later at night. Yesterday, the supervisors' Finance Committee grudgingly went along with most of the expansion but made it temporary, contingent on Cruz overhauling the entire customer service setup.

Newsom's report said a new mind-set is what's needed. "Simply referring to the patrons of Muni as customers is a significant step in the right direction," it said.

"Other public transit agencies across the country have already revolutionized their customer services, providing numerous examples for Muni to emulate," the report said.

Some agencies, such as the one in Atlanta, have elevated customer service into separate units. Portland, Atlanta and San Diego regularly survey customers. San Diego even has surveyors riding buses and streetcars.

Minneapolis ties customer satisfaction to drivers' wages and bonuses. Muni couldn't do that because of civil service and union rules.

Cruz said he would like more money in his budget to do more surveying, make more printed information available to riders and hold more community forums.

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